Artist, curator, and general badass, Tatiana Veneruso sits down with Peachy Keen in her new Athens, Georgia art space, The Trio Gallery. We walk through the soon-to-be-opened space, and chat about the experiences that led her to this exciting venture. Along the way we discuss student loans, One Shot paints, the not-so-feminist practice of moving to Athens for a boy, and the cultural significance and deep philosophical meaning behind the Golden Girls.

Born in Tennessee and raised in Georgia, contemporary artist Vivian Liddell interviews women on art & the South. Bringing together women of all sorts to talk about their inspirations and definitions of art, and how these individual opinions reflect our changing region.

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I became really determined to find a way to make really beautiful, pastoral even, sorts of portraits—meditations of both persons and place, persons in place. . . . I think ultimately, it’s this interest in kind of flipping the script on urban landscape.

And this newer work takes into account a kind of cultural landscape, and memory and history. . . . For this show, all of the works—all of these “counter-memorials” is kind of what I call them—are at the site of Civil War historical markers that are all over the city. . . . The historical markers in Atlanta, in Georgia, absolutely talk about the Union soldiers, and there are some accountings of histories of federal troops, but Primarily it’s all from this Southern, Confederate perspective. And that’s what I find so interesting.

I think education is key. And I love teaching. It’s coming up with the right lesson. Once you come up with the right art lesson, the teacher should not be interfering with that student. In fact, I usually work on my own piece.

I don’t look at their work until the end. The worse thing a teacher can do is put their hand on that person’s hand and say "Oh no no no no, put it that way..." Hummm. And they’re all different... Or "Oh no, this is the way you have to draw the circle." Oh, really? Or "No, the face has to be a certain color." Really?

It’s a little magical to me. I am very shy; I don’t share it at all. Very few people have read my writing. So, I don’t know. I think it’s just you know like, you have to be very courageous I think as an artist, and generous as an artist to say “This is my internal musings and this is what I think about the world. And here, people! Consume!" … And you hope that your audience is generous with you, and accepting, and challenging…

I remember I was in elementary, like in my little kindergarten class, maybe first grade—and we decided to have a carnival. Like ‘Okay, we’re going to have a special presentation! What is it? It’s a carnival!’ And then the kids got to take little cardboard boxes and decorate them with paint and glitter and did a little dance like they were in a parade. … I think those type of memories definitely fuel my art.

It was really helpful to know from a personal standpoint, how best to care for my mom. Because I was working with people with severe psychiatric challenges, and then my mom all of the sudden had something where she was losing her mind… and so it helped me figure out a care plan and how to best interact with her so she wasn’t as scared. And finding, you know, the right fit for her as she needed to transition to different living facilities and that kind of stuff. So I’m very thankful to have that history, and that experience.

I turned the lens on myself and started documenting my like, lived experiences. And thinking about family archives and sentimentality and nostalgia and domesticity— and how those are so intertwined with like the female experience either as a positive or problematic depending on who’s saying it and how they’re describing it...